unit test parser with large string input

Question

I like the suggestion here:

SO question

It suggests using this code:

public class SettingsReader()
{
    public SettingsReader(System.IO.StreamReader reader)
    {
        // read contents of stream...
    }
}

// In production code:
new SettingsReader(new StreamReader(File.Open("settings.xml")));

// In unit test:
new SettingsReader(new StringReader("<settings>dummy settings</settings>"));

I am just wondering what the best practice is to 'supply' large test strings (i.e. several lines of the file to be parsed).

Answer 1

One common approach is to add a file with the test data to the resources of the unit test assembly and read that data in the unit test.

Answer 2

Just add a separate file as assembly embedded resource and load it in unit test.

Use Assebmly.GetManifestResourceStream method to load the embedded file.

using (var stream = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()
       .GetManifestResourceStream(typeof(YourUnitTest), filename))
using(var reader = new StreamReader(stream))
{
    var fileContent = reader.ReadToEnd();
}